THE FUTILITY OF TRYING TO PLEASE GOD APART FROM CHRIST:

I used to stress over all that I needed to do to please God. I’ve even stressed over all that I needed to not do in order to please God. I long struggled to live a life that would give God pleasure, and it was truly a roller-coaster ride. So when I failed to do what I thought would please Him (Romans 7), I questioned if I was saved at all! What a miserable experience it was for me, for a Christian who was supposedly assured that I could not be removed from God’s hand. I examined my life and found it to be lacking whatever necessary to please God.

I saw my salvation in light of the stringent set of laws given by God. I thought, “If I can’t obey them, then I must not please God. And if I am not pleasing God, then I must not be saved.” How could I possibly meet God’s heavy demands when my life is plagued by sins of commission (things that I did that are forbidden) and sins of omission (things that I did not do that I should have done)?

I would finally realize that I would never please God on my own, or “in the flesh”, as the Bible puts it. Apart from Christ I can do nothing. Sure, I can dress and eat and sleep and work apart from Christ…but it was in this phrase “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” that I found hope as a Christian man struggling to please God. Finally, I have assurance that I DO please God, but only by and through Jesus Christ! John recorded Jesus’ words in John 15 that apart from Him we will bear no fruit of salvation that pleases God.

Watchman Nee puts it this way: “If I try to please God ‘in the flesh’, then immediately I place myself under the Law. I broke the Law; the Law pronounced the death sentence…but it is Christ who works in me what is well-pleasing to God.” (“The Normal Christian Life” pp.164-165). A drowning man will fight for his life and possibly even drown his rescuer. But “a drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself” (ibid, p.168).

What truly brings God pleasure is the glory that Jesus Christ brings Him. I share in glorifying God when it is Jesus Christ doing the glorifying on my behalf.


Have you noticed any efforts in your own life to please God, not because you enjoy living a life that pleases Him, but because you felt the obligation to do so for the sake of your salvation?

THE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION:

Here's the Reader's Digest version of a conversation I had in my patrol car today with a former crack cocaine addict I'll call Billy.

To bring you up to speed, the first portion of our conversation was Billy telling me his story of his childhood (started using crack cocaine at the ripe old age of 16!), his addictions, his arrest last summer, his time in a detox program, and his on-going counseling to stay clean.

"Do you believe in God, heaven, or hell, Billy?"

"Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell based on everything I've done in my life. I mean, I've been saved, God has forgiven me, but I'm still pretty sure I'm going to hell anyway."

"Why? Isn't God's grace sufficient enough to forgive all kinds of sin?"

"Yeah, but this is a pretty bad one."

"There's worse", I replied.

"Yeah, but I've been hurting people for over 15 years and I feel guilty about it. I mean, I know people don't go to heaven because they do good things, but there has to be some consequence."

"Tell me, then, Billy. How is a person saved?"

"Well, God forgives us of our sin and we have to do the right things, like reading the bible, going to church, being nice to people."

"But didn't you just say we don't go to heaven because of the good things we do? Which one is it?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know how God forgives us, Billy? Do you know what's going on behind the scenes, theologically speaking?"

"I'm not exactly sure."

I'll spare you the dialogue, but I explained to Billy the holy, righteous requirements God set for us in His Law. I then asked if any person has ever been able to obey and satisfy all of these laws. His answer, of course, was no, so I asked Billy who Jesus Christ was. He stumbled through the idea of Jesus being the Son of God, but was not sure if Jesus was sinless and how He came into the picture regarding our sins. I took some time to explain the sinlessness of Christ, and that He fulfilled ALL of the righteous requirements of God's Law on the behalf of those who would entrust their lives to Him!

"Billy, when you asked God for forgiveness, do you think God knew who you were at the time He chose to forgive you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because it's quite significant. If He knew your yesterdays, then He also knows your tomorrows. Do you think He forgave only certain sins you've committed, or a certain time period of sins?

"I don't know for sure."

"No! If you have truly entrusted your life to Him, then He has forgiven your past sins and even the sins you haven't yet committed! God forgives us sinners in spite of who we are, and all that while knowing we will continue to sin. You have a written guarantee in His Word that you ARE forgiven, Billy. There are no caveats or exceptions. Your guilt for sins committed does not abolish the truth of God's great grace. If you have put your life in Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled all those requirements that you cannot fulfill, then when God judges you He sees Jesus Christ! He sees the sinless one standing in on your behalf. You are forgiven if you have truly turned to God through Jesus Christ and you have an assurance, a guarantee that you will be in heaven."

It was a fun conversation, because I was not trying to convince a person he needed salvation. I was simply convincing a sinner of his assurance of salvation, a message that has so regularly been ignored. Our churches have been implicitly leading people to live in fear, causing them to wonder if they can ever know if they are really saved. Billy still held the understanding that God judges us by using the scales of justice, where good or bad deeds outweigh the other. People are hearing a message of "good works" FOR salvation, but I think we need to be stressing the assurance of true salvation, where good works are an outworking based on what God has done for us.

Jesus said, "...I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." (John 10:28)

ONE MAN'S SELF-CONTROL:

I want to brag on my dad. He has made a courageous display of self-control that I think would be good for my brothers and sisters in Christ to read. So I’m going to tell you one story so I can tell you another one. And then I’m going to spiritualize it.

Dad is 62 years old. He is a well-decorated VietNam veteran of the United States Army. He earned a Bronze Star for his courage in saving a wounded soldier under heavy gunfire, and two Purple Hearts for each of the instances in which he was injured in battle.

But that’s only the backdrop of the man I want to brag about today. My dad started smoking, as most did then, when he was about 15 years old. You can do the math, but in short he has smoked all of his adult life.

That is, up until February 2009.

Dad tried to quit smoking many times over the years. I think our entire family lost count around time number 437. But bless his heart, he kept trying. Over the years, he’s had two arterial replacement surgeries in both legs because the ingredients of the cigarettes have diminished his circulation and overall health. The doctor told him a couple years ago that if he didn’t quit smoking immediately, there’d be nothing he could do to help my dad the next time he was hospitalized.

February 2009 marked the final beginning of dad’s smoke-free effort. He used a powerful prescription drug to help wean him off the withdrawals, and the last time he took a drag off a cigarette was my birthday, February 2009.

This February marked 1 year of dad being smoke free! I’m so freakin’ proud of him right now, I’m getting goose bumps thinking about it. But I didn’t know he was smoke free until my birthday this year when he told me he had been smoke free for the entire year!

Here’s what I really want you to know, though. Dad and I had a long talk about his most recent effort to quit smoking. Here’s the run-down of that conversation.

I asked, “Do you still crave cigarettes?”
“Oh yeah I do. Especially when I’m bowling and around other smokers.”
“So what has kept you from lighting up another one this year?” I asked.
“Because I know the consequences if I do. I know that if I smoke just one cigarette, I’ll relapse back to square one…and I worked way too hard to give that up. I also know that if something else happens to me, I may lose my legs.”

While it was a strong drug that helped dad overcome the initial elements of his addiction and withdrawal symptoms, it was his self-control (I’d suggest by the power of God’s Spirit) that has kept him where he is today. He never said the urge was taken from him, but is still very much alive. Today, he fights a different battle than one thousands of miles away in a distant land. He battles temptation, and he still must say no every time they surface. He knows that temptation will come eventually, if not daily.

The bible tells us that a proud heart precedes a fall. Just when you think you’ve got your troubles licked, you fall to them when you least expect it. The absence of temptation is often as deceptive as the temptation itself, for it often lulls us into a false sense of security.

Maybe your temptation is lust or porn, like me. Maybe it’s food. Maybe it’s alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes. Maybe it’s gossip or slander. Maybe it’s greed. Maybe it’s anger and rage. But, whatever the case, may this story inspire and encourage you.

Be on guard!

Be alert!

Be self-controlled!

"66 LOVE LETTERS", by Dr. Larry Crabb

All I can say is “phenomenal!” What a fantastic idea this book was. If you’ve ever read Thomas A’Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ” and liked the conversational format, then you’ll probably like this book as well.

Imagine you’ve just received a letter from your beloved and you were able to have a conversation with him/her about the letter. Your beloved allows you to react honestly and openly without being offended as you reveal your skepticism, anger, fear, and excitement. Your beloved then responds to you about your responses and whether or not your emotions are warranted. Maybe you don’t see something the way your beloved does and s/he desires to explain it.

This is exactly how Dr. Crabb formatted “66 Love Letters.” Each book in the bible is treated as it’s own, separate love letter from God to humanity, hence the book’s title. Dr. Crabb introduces each love letter with a short phrase that summarizes the main thrust of the letter. For instance, in “Love Letter Twenty-Five: Lamentations”, Dr. Crabb writes the following subheading which serves as the main idea: “Painful Thirst Creates Joyful Hope.”

Within the body of the conversation, Dr. Crabb writes his honest reflections about the letter and then listens to God’s response. Each chapters includes “bantering” back and forth between Dr. Crabb and God, and each chapter is only 2-4 pages long.

Somewhere in each dialogue, Dr. Crabb includes a longer summary statement about the love letter, all as part of the conversation. There’s no confusion about what is the summary statement: it’s written in bold type. Continuing with the Lamentations example, he writes, “Every moment of suffering represents a strident but merciful call to repent. And every moment of suffering presents a painful opportunity to hope” (p.128).

If you can’t already tell, I really like this book. Here are some specifics:

1) “66 Love Letters” in an inspiration to read the bible more frequently and in a more reflective way. Each reflection affords invaluable insight into the book’s ideas that may typically be out of sight of the average bible reader. This allows for a more insightful reading of the biblical book.

2) As is the case in non-fiction books, authors always have tidbits they believe will be insightful for their readers. In this book, we are in a sense intruding on a private conversation and are stealing those tidbits from the dialogue between Dr. Crabb and God. In essence, though, those tidbits are intended for us.

3) Dr. Crabb stressed at the beginning of the book that “66 Love Letters” is designed to be a study tool, not something a reader should read through in a few sittings. He hopes each reader will use this in conjunction with careful bible study.

4) Finally, Dr. Crabb hopes readers will reflect carefully on each book and take away from it what the Spirit of God prompts in the reader. He admits his reflections are his and may not be ours.

What I disliked: Honestly, nothing!

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